Downtown Seattle's Workforce Abandoning Solo Car Commutes

Downtown Seattle is doing something right to get drivers out of cars: a recent survey reveals that fewer and fewer commuters are driving alone, and the fastest growing modes for commuters are of the non-motorized variety.

February 26, 2015, 10am PST | James Brasuell | @CasualBrasuell

"Commute Seattle released new survey data,with the help of EMC Research [pdf], that shows a growing percentage of Downtown commuters rely on modes other than single occupancy vehicles (SOVs). In fact, 60% of commuters don’t drive at all, instead opting for transit, walking, or cycling," reports Owen Pickford.

"The mode split by type has changed significantly since the last survey, which was completed in 2012. Nearly 4% fewer people drove alone compared to that survey and it seems likely that Seattle will reach its goal of 30% or less by 2016."

There are drivers who probably wonder how those numbers can be true, but the city's increasing population means that the same number of drivers are on the road, even if they make up less of the overall mode share.

Yonah Freemark took to Twitter to note that the shift in mode share followed years of investment in Seattle's transit system. Writing for Streetsblog USA, Angie Schmitt notes that the data are "a testament to how quickly travel behavior can change..."

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Commute Seattle Study Shows Only 31% of Downtown Commuters Drive Alone

Published on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 in The Urbanist